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Nickee
Magnuson dies
Mabel
Isabel Nichols “Nickee” Magnuson
passed away on Tuesday, February 27, 2007. She and her
husband Al founded the Mount Baker Experience in 1987.
She had been a resident of St. Francis Extended Care in
Bellingham for the last several years. Born in Barnard,
Vermont, in 1921 she was a daughter of Clarence Willard
Nichols and Hattie M. Harlow. Her Harlow family roots can
be traced back to the Mayflower.
She
graduated from Oliver Ames high school in Easton, Massachusetts
in 1938. She started nursing school on December 7, 1941,
Pearl Harbor Day, at the Evangeline Booth Memorial Hospital
in Boston.
While
working in New York she continued to stay in touch with
her former pastor from the Brockton Alliance Church, Reverend
Ray Cole. He was now pastor of the Washington, D.C. Alliance
Church and had extended a standing invitation for Mabel
to come and visit any weekend she had off. Meanwhile, Al
Magnuson had been discharged from the Army in Washington,
D.C. after serving for about six months and had an office
job. He hadn’t been attending church
regularly, but decided to go one particular Sunday when
Mabel was there as a guest of the Coles. After church some
volunteers were needed for a project. Mabel and Al were
among the volunteers. Al made several trips to New York
to visit Mabel. At a church service the hymn Sing Them
Over Again To Me, Wonderful Words of Life was being sung.
During this hymn Al slipped a ring on Mabel’s finger.
Mabel
and Al were married on February 20, 1952 in Brockton,
Massachusetts. Although her father was a very sick man,
Clarence insisted on walking Mabel down the aisle. He told
her he didn’t
think he would live long enough to be able to walk any
of his other daughters down the aisle, so he wasn’t
going to miss this opportunity. He died nine days later
on February 29, 1952.
They
moved to Bellingham in 1957 so Al could be closer to his
mother to help care for her, as he was the only son. They
lived in several places in Bellingham before moving to
Orcas Island in 1974. In 1964 Mabel and Al started The
Orcas Island Booster. It was later renamed, The Islands
Sounder. The paper started with 15 issues a year and grew
into a weekly paper by the time they sold it in 1985.
Shortly
after selling the Mount Baker Experience, Mabel and Al
made their final trip east together for a wonderful Harlow-Nichols
family reunion in November 1999. Over the Thanksgiving
weekend five of the six surviving Nichols siblings and
their spouses met and visited together. It had been 50
years since some of the siblings had seen each other.
Her
husband, Alton Langley Magnuson, passed away September
10, 2002. Mabel is survived by her two sons, Earl, wife
Deborah, daughter Christine Rose; Joseph, his daughters,
Sara Elizabeth and Hannah Sue, and great-grandson Michael
Magnuson, son of Sara Elizabeth. She is also survived by
her brothers and sisters, Ruth Ball of Woodbine, Iowa,
Paul Nichols of West Palm Beach, Florida, Earl Nichols
of Carversville, Pennsylvania, Priscilla Wheeler of Union
City, Pennsylvania and Russell Nichols of Westwood, New
Jersey. She is also survived by 24 nieces and nephews and
34 grandnieces and grandnephews. |
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